Improved roofing-cement



GEORGE STEAD, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVED ROOFING-CEMENT.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 58,499, dated October 2, 1866.

' it will not crack or peel off, that it will conform or yield to the expansion and contraction of the surfaces to which it may be applied, and

which will be more durable, tougher, and more elastic than. ordinary paints or cements; and it consists of a cement compounded and prepared as hereinafter more fully described.

I use a caldron which holds about twenty gallons, set into an iron frame or furnace for burning wood; but the manner in which the caldron is set, its capacity, and the kind of fuel used are wholly immaterial. This caldron' I fill full of paint-skins, the soft parts of which have been broken up small and the hard parts chopped up fine. I then mix two pounds of potash in one gallon of hot water, and pour this mixture over the paint-skins, to aid in softening them. A fire is then madein the furnace, and the skins are boiled for two hours, during which time they must be well stirred. Two gallons of raw linseed-oil foots is then added, and the boiling continued for one'hour longer, bywhich time the water contained in it will be wholly evaporated. I then putinto it ten pounds of mineral paint, and boil it all up together. I then strain it into another caldron or tank through a sieve, the meshes of which are sufficiently fine to remove all foreign substances, such as fragments of nails, pieces of wood, &c., which may be in the mixture, together with any of the coarser pieces of paintskins which may be therein uncut or unsoftened by the process through which they have passed. The cement .is then poured into a paint-mill and ground still finer.

As the cementcomes from the mill it is received into the cans in which it is to be sold, and from which it may be used, and as it cools it becomes thick and solid, and is ready to be used as a cement for closing the seams in the roof that the contraction and expansion of the materials may have opened, for closing the joints where the tin sets into the brick-work of the chimneys and copings, and the joints around the wooden skylights and cupolas, for painting brick-work, and similar uses.

In a few days after its application a thick skin forms over the top of the cement, which keeps the part beneath always moist and protected from the action of the weather, and also prevents it from sticking to the feet of those who may walk upon it when upon the roof. When thinned with oil it becomes a very useful and durable paint for roofs and other out-- door surfaces.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent A roofing-cement compounded and prepared substantially as herein described, and for the purposes set fort-h.

GEORGE STEAD.

Witnesses: v

M. M. LIVINGSTON, JAMES T. GRAHAM. 

